Health Literacy on Healthcare Delivery

Health literacy is on the rise because of consumer empowerment initiatives aimed at creating awareness on healthcare options and services. These initiatives enable healthcare clients to have an understanding of how they can better their health status, and to have an upper hand in decision making on what services they receive. Increasing consumer empowerment on health issues has both positive and negative influences on healthcare delivery.

Improved population health

High health literacy has a long-term positive effect on the health status of the population. The people will be able to live desirable lifestyles that promote health and make proper use of available prophylactic measures. This reduces the morbidity of various health conditions, thus providing better health outcomes for health services delivered.

Reduced healthcare costs

An improvement in the health of the population results in reduced expenditure on healthcare services. The number of healthcare priorities will reduce and thus lower healthcare costs. 

Increased effectiveness of care

Proper treatment accompanied by proper management of a condition by a client, is likely to result to recovery or improvement of the health status of the client. Achievement of this is possible with a health literate client on the condition under care. Health illiteracy usually leads to mismanagement of health conditions by clients, making the conditions worse or recurring. With the increasing number of drug resistant infections, effectiveness of treatment is a very crucial element in healthcare delivery.

Quality of care

Client empowerment on health issues is very important in ensuring provision of quality healthcare services. With health literacy, clients have an understanding of what services they need and at what standards. This makes providers to strive to provide quality services.

Litigation issues

Client empowerment is making healthcare delivery more challenging when it comes to issues like patient autonomy and other ethical issues. There is increasing cases of litigation on healthcare providers on various aspects of care especially touching on healthcare ethics. These issues bring in a conflict of interest on whether to provide care at the interest of the client, at the interest of the public, or at the interest of the professional requirements.

Self medication

Health literacy has given some people the perception that they can handle several conditions on their own without consulting a physician. This attitude is increasing the cases of self medication which may result to negative outcomes as will be discussed here soon.

Health literacy is generally important in the generation of desirable healthcare outcomes. There is need for investment in health literacy for better long-term population health status, reduced healthcare costs, increased effectiveness, and quality of healthcare.

Preventive Health Taken Too Far

A proposal by some civil society groups to cub teenage pregnancy cases in Kenya spiraled into a national debate on the role of some preventive health initiatives on the societal well-being. The groups were proposing the distribution of contraceptives to school going children/teenagers in order to minimize the rising cases of early pregnancies. This proposal has led stakeholders in the health sector to assess the overall impact of some preventive health interventions and re-assessment of health priorities.

Behavioral characteristics of teenagers

Teenagers are in a stage of development characterized by curiosity and this can be destructive especially under peer pressure. These young people are in the process of discovering their bodies and yearn to be ‘adults’. Ease of access and approval by the government will ‘open’ the minds of those children who had no idea of these things, thereby developing interest among all the children. Gone will be the days when our children will be playing football, the focus will be more on the consumption of contraceptives. One can only imagine how peer pressure can accelerate consumption rates. Why should they expire anyway?

Health priorities

There is need for a review of our health priorities. A program on distribution of contraceptives among school going children will require sustainability since it cannot be a one-time intervention. Alternatively, many school going children from poor families lack sanitary towels and therefore end up using homemade materials that may be unhygienic and uncomfortable. This goes a long way to affect the health and education of the girl child. A program for distribution of sanitary towels also requires long-term sustainability, but it will be addressing a higher priority public health condition as compared to distribution of contraceptives.

Gap between knowledge and practice

Availability of the contraceptives is one thing; their proper usage is the other thing. Some crucial stakeholders (especially the teaching fraternity), are against this intervention. These people would have played the role of teaching the children on how to use these contraceptives properly. The resistance shown by the teachers will put the children at greater risk since these contraceptives will be experimental use. There was inadequate involvement of stakeholders in coming up with the proposal.

Reality of the modern society

Although most people are faulting the proposal, some practitioners defend the proposal as the best way to deal with the reality that children become sexually active at a lower age than before and therefore, there is need for their protection in their adventures. Unavailability of these prophylactic devices may expose them to obvious risks, and this justifies the need to avoid taking chances, by providing the contraceptives to the children.